New Years Weekend Beach Trip!

So Holly and I along with several friends from church took all the canoes and kayaks out that we could get our hands on out to the beach Jan. 2 for a fishing/bar-b-que trip.

The Guys and I headed out earlier in the kayaks to get some fishing in. we paddled over to some bridges at an adjacent park where the water was deep and the fish were varied.

I caught a sheepshead

 that was just barely of keeper size and then we headed back to the beach for lunch. after lunch we all paddled back to the bridge where we caught 3 gag grouper! one was about 17" and just shy of keeping (min. 20") and Holly caught a red that was just big enough to take home (18") all was very fun and exciting especially for holly because it was the first fish over a few inches that she has ever caught.

Leftovers

Well, Thanksgiving was again this year, different. We kicked off the day by cruising the gulf via kayak thanks to some generous in-laws.

I had Charlie in the front hatch of my kayak, James took Mekayla in his lap and Holly got the hard job - Photographer!

Inside Your Mind

Thursday Holly and I had the chance to go and see The Phantom Of The Opera In Tampa. Because they do not allow photography during the production this is the only picture we could sneak off. Holly loved it being her first time seeing the show and is already contemplating where we will see it next! (which is fine by me)

Fishing Report

FINALLY! I hooked and landed my first red drum this afternoon out in the grass flats! I don't know the weight, but he was 22" long which they need to be at least 18" to keep. Now I was pretty optimistic after landing this one, seeing as there were pods of red drum tailing all over the place, so I let this one go, hoping to catch a larger one later. See, as the limit is only one, I didn't want to bag it and call it quits there. And of course the story goes.. it ended up being the only fish of the day. Just less for me to clean I guess.

Put up a great fight though, a very fun fish to catch. I tried all kinds of lures and jigs in the past... which everyone says should work. However, I have been skunked 4 times now under that idea, so after a few hours of no hits on this trip, I put on a little jig and caught a small bait fish and tossed it on the hook and flung 'em out there. It seemed to do the trick.

Who thought a cake could be SO sinful?

Now there is nothing morally or ethically wrong with this cake (some may disagree). It is, of course the creation of Holly with technical input provided by James.

What it's made up of:

- Middle layer: Chocolate Trinity Ice Cream (pre

mium dark chocolate ice cream swirled with 

mackinac thick fudge and sprinkled with mini thick fudge chips)

- Top/bottom: Thick homemade brownie with chocoate chips

- Outer Coating: Chocolate butter cream frosting with Hershey's shell chocolate topping.

The writting on the top says in programming language: Happy Birthday Buddy!

Going West!

It is official! The Mrs. and I will be taking this years hiatus in California and Oregon! It has been almost a year since we have been to CA and we have never been there since getting hitched, and it has been 4 yrs since I have been to OR!

We are so excited and looking forward to seeing family and friends along with getting away from the norm for a little bit!



See some of you SOON!

Finally Tested!

Today we got to test out our new kayak, (14' scupper pro ocean kayak, right) and it was also Holly's first time ever paddling around and being in a kayak! So the learning experiance was fun and as you can see below it was not without battle wounds.
















We managed to get out inbetween thunderstorms, but only got about 30 minutes on the water before the next storm was blowing in. Holly did an excellent job with it being her first time on the water and next time we hope to be out a little longer and get to see more of what the area has to offer! it was unfortunately high tide today which made the water about 5 ft deep so you couldnt really see much what was going on in the water, but at low tide you can paddle out a mile or so and have it still be 1-2 ft deep which allows for all kinds of exciting encounters....

more news to come soon!